Accidentally in Code

Tag: computer science

Crisis of Conscience

Credit: Flickr / Jessica Garro

At some point, my doubts about whether it was the Right thing to do, to encourage high school girls to go into Computer Science crystallised, and I accepted – I just cannot do it anymore. I cannot tell them that it is a good idea, that they will be treated well, that there are plentiful opportunities for women. The data suggests that having a Bad Time is statistically… at least not unlikely.

This was probably around the time I got really fed up of people in the industry pointing to schools as the problem.

University students I’m more conflicted about. The closer to graduation, the more committed they are. Prep them as they go into the Real World. Earlier… I don’t know. I found watching, even from afar, a girl switch into, and then be driven out of CS heartbreaking.

Because I don’t need to talk to her to have a good idea of what happened.

I’ve heard the same stories, again and again, I’ve told them too. It is hard. The diminishing remarks (see this thread on Quota), being patronised – when will it stop? Personally, I’m still waiting. Feeling other. Being sidelined, marginalised, left out.

So more and more I’m focused on the women who are still here. I reach out to them (usually via Twitter), especially if I have some inkling they are having a Bad Time. I encourage them to go after opportunities, or to be selfish and focus on looking after themselves, and cheer them on when they succeed. And I get all of these things back from this network, too.

I got some interesting advice the other day, which was that when (the assumption was when) I have kids, I’ll be too busy to care, or to notice the micro-aggressions, outright aggressions, and other BS. Which is an interesting perspective, but one that I’ll leave others to explore.

But one thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, is where is the middle ground between doing all the things, and Fuck you, I got mine? There is an emotional toll to noticing, a time-tax on needing to act, that maybe we can’t always afford. Not-noticing something can be an act of self-preservation, not malice. Although denying someone else’s observations is invariably unhelpful and often harmful, where does denying our own fall?

I’ve been spending much more time talking to men lately, and I’ve discovered that they are often awful to each other, too. I basically had no idea of this, and my unproven theory is: most guys being jerks comes from insecurity, they pick the easiest target, women are (in general) easier targets than other men.

Also, the men who are the targets (for the most part) don’t have the added burden of stereotype threat that women face. The guy is just a jerk, whereas for women there is always the possibility that he is a jerk and a misogynist.

Now, not noticing, makes so much more sense to me. Not only as a way of self-protection, but also because it is less glaring.

All I’m concluding is: I can’t judge people for their (non-harmful) protective methods (I wish I was better at them) and I’m no longer so surprised when other women haven’t noticed things. And I can’t sell this industry to any more high school girls.

March 19, 2014
5 Tips When Applying to Opportunities For Women in STEM

Credit: DeviantArt / unicorn-skydancer08

I’ve now reviewed a bunch of applications, for a number of different events. I’ve run the sessions that come afterwards deciding on who gets what, and as a result there are some mistakes that I’ve seen over and over again.

I’m sure some women get rejected when they have a lot to offer, and part of the reason is that messaging around these things is hard. Trying to balance the message to universities and supervisors that there is an academic benefit to such events, but academics are not the only thing applicants are evaluated on. Students don’t know what they should be highlighting, they are pressed for time, and getting recommendation letters can be stressful. Good educators and supervisors see helping their students get opportunities as part of their job. But there is little incentive in academia to be a good educator or supervisor (researcher – yes).

1. Get To The Point.

At any point, at work or not, I have a number of different things pulling at my attention. I carve out time for these things because I think they are important, but the less time I take on your application, the more I like you.

I’m not reading everything in depth, so break up large blocks of text into headings. Use bullet points. Make it easy for me to pull out the relevant information and make a judgement.

Customise your materials. Delete stuff that is irrelevant to this (proficiency with Microsoft Word, for example). This isn’t a job application, so delete the “objective” that says you are looking for one. Highlight and expand on your relevant achievements – the event you organised for women at your university, the article or profile in the publication.

2. Talk About Women.

This is an event for women, so I need you to tell me what you would get and give to an event for women. Great academic work is insufficient, and what do you mean by “networking” anyway? What I want to know is, how will your work, and your life, be better because of this opportunity? Are you the only woman in most of your classes and feeling isolated? Are you trying to start up a women’s group, but don’t know where to start? Finally, but most importantly, what have you done for the women around you?

3. Show Me the Multiplier.

There are limited resources this kind of thing, and so what I want to see is how the benefit extends beyond just you. What do you want to take back when you leave? How are you going to share the things that you learn? What are you going to do differently?

1x – I want to come and learn and network.

xx – I have been working on [great idea] but so far my reach is [limiting factors, numbers]. I hope to leave this event with ideas to increase the scope of this project, and engage more women in it, ideally so we can expand it to other [universities/regions].

4. Have a Passion Rather Than a Life Plan.

Basically I’m just bored of reading undergraduates who have never even interned anywhere writing about they want to go into academia. Is this a decision that has been critically evaluated, or just a default through not knowing anywhere else? Do people say this because they think they have to know what they want to do?

Personally, I don’t care. I don’t know what I want to do in 5 years, and don’t expect anyone else to, either. In this industry, I’m uninterested by passion for a career path, and much more positive about passion for a theme.

I’m really interested in the pervasiveness of computers, and as we move from computers taking up whole rooms and buildings to being attached to every day devices and even clothing, technology approaches invisible, and yet is ever more important. As I progress in my career, I want to explore the kind of experiences we can create around that, and the very real implications of privacy and security.

I think we have only just started to explore the possibilities of large data sets and what they can tell us about disease, language, and the nature of the universe. Specifically, I’m interested in [topic], but longer term I’m interested in increasing the availability of this kind of analysis through creating and sharing tools for handling and visualising large data sets, and through education of scientists in other fields.

5. Be Careful Who Your Letters of Recommendation Come From.

Academic supervisor is fine, but do they know anything of your work for women? Or have you been deliberately concealing a lot of it because they would see it as a lack of commitment to your research? Is there someone who could better speak to that?

Once you’ve picked your person, it’s fine – helpful, actually – to highlight some achievements and talking points for them. Emphasise that this is a women’s event, and so talking up your academic work should be some, but not all of the letter.

Personally, I ignore any comments in the letter that are historically gendered. Few things bore me more than men describing women they work with as “shy”. Not everyone does, though, so if you suspect the person you are asking is somewhat sexist, even if benevolently so, you might be better served to find someone else.

January 15, 2014
Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi

Credit: Wikimedia

I lucked out in being in town when the Women Powering Technology Raspberry Pi event was on, and also in hearing about it – and being allowed in at the last minute!

Of course I had heard about the Raspberry Pi, and loved the idea, but I’m pretty intimidated by hardware and cables, so it had never occurred to me to buy one. Now, I want one!

Judi McCuaig from the University of Guelph was running the workshop, and started by talking about their use of the Raspberry Pi in their first year course. I have long thought it is cruel an unusual to teach first years C or even C++, but since they have to teach C at Guelph right now, at least it’s fun and exciting.

Instead of a textbook, each student buys a Raspberry Pi (no more expensive), which they partnered with a hacker space to package and sell to the students. It has a custom OS on it, and comes with everything the students need to get started.

It addresses the problem of the students bringing in their own computers, which they are afraid to break. Now they all have the same platform. And the flakey SD card (or, pulling it out at the wrong time) means the students are even using git and checking in their code constantly.

I think it’s a really, really cool idea, and aside from the use of C, addresses some of the improvements in curriculum and experience that we know make computer science more inclusive.

Then, we had a little time – maybe an hour – to play with it ourselves. We started by making a light blink on and off. My team (a Chemical Engineer, and Electrical Engineer, and s Software Engineer – which sounds like the start of a joke…), by going over and being the last to hand back our equipment, managed to also create a little program that took in a string and blinked in out in Morse Code. So much fun!

December 11, 2013